A Qualitative Exploration of the DIGCOMP Digital Competence Framework: Attitudes of students, academics and administrative staff in the health faculty of a UK HEI

Evangelinos, George and Holley, Debbie
(2015)
A Qualitative Exploration of the DIGCOMP Digital Competence Framework: Attitudes of students, academics and administrative staff in the health faculty of a UK HEI.
EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning.
ISSN 2032-9253

Abstract

This paper reports upon findings of a series of semi-structured interviews with students, academics and administrative staff
from a health care faculty in a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). Exploring their experiences of mapping to the EU
DIGCOMP Digital Competence Framework, a hermeneutic lens enables a more nuanced approach to attitudes towards
Digital Competence (DC). One of the eight lifelong learning key-competences required for managers, doctors, nurses and
other health-related professionals, DC is crucial to professional development. Defined by 14 themes, the findings express
the participants’ experiences, knowledge and level of comprehension of the subject. Our findings indicate students are
conflating digital social media skills with their skills for the workplace, resulting in over-confidence; academics raising
concerns about work/private life balance offered by the affordances of handheld devices; administrative staff that are far
more confident and managing a range of technology’s effectively. The research further reveals that the DIGICOMP
framework is applicable as a generic framework for professional practice.